How to write a fanfiction story
by GTown
Summary: Advice for writing a good fanfiction story. A good read for new writers on this site.


**How to Write a fanfiction story**

_Introduction_

I have been a reader of fanfiction on this site for 12 years now and wanted to do this to help some of you who may be thinking of writing a story, but don't quite know how to put the story they have in mind onto paper (or onto a computer screen as it may be) . I have seen a few of these on here and I wanted to do something a little more expansive. I don't plan to stop at just one chapter, but rather to do several. Each chapter will focus on a specific area of storytelling and I will try to use examples from books that I have read to demonstrate a specific point I am trying to make.

I am no English major, but I am an avid reader of both books and fanfiction and have tried my hand at writing a few stories of my own (none on this site though). I know there are several different methods of writing a story and that no one way is the "right way", but I hope that my advice can help some of the writers here transform their ideas into full fledged stories.

Whether it is books or amateur writing I have always loved a good story. Nothing disappoints me more than finding story with a summary that presents a story that I would love to read, only to find that it is poorly written or not what it is advertised to be. If my advice even helps one writer write one good story then my time will have been well spent.

Not all of the advice I give will be my own. In preparation for writing my own stories I have come across several online articles that helped immensely. I will always give credit when I add something that is not mine.

_**Getting started**_

As readers of this site, we all have vivid imaginations. We read a great story or see a great movie/TV show, and when we are finished we think of all the stories that could be told if they had gone in a different direction. Or we want to try a hand at telling a continuation of the story in cannon.

Developing these plot bunnies into stories is extremely difficult and time consuming though. If you take the time to some these things, then you may find that task a little easier to get started on.

**Make sure you are familiar with what you are writing about**

Before you start writing or even outlining, do yourself and your readers a favor and make sure that your knowledge of the material is fresh. Read the book or watch the movie again. You will be surprised at all the nuances of certain characters or of a hallmark location in the story that you may have forgotten in the few years it's been since you read/watched the material. With long standing TV series it may not be practical to do a total rewatch, but watch some episodes from either the most recent season or the season you plan on starting the story in. Take notes.

**Write a timeline**

Your timeline should be as simple as possible. A timeline should just be dates and events with no descriptions at all. You may find that have a simple order of events to look at will be sort of a roadmap for you to follow to help you keep your story going where you want it to go.

There are some stories that are designed to be just a series of events with very little to connect them, but if your story turns out that way without you intending it to you, then you may run into problems down the road with errors and contradictions.

A good example of a timeline would be

(5 years before story) John's mother dies

(4 years before story) John joins military

(present day) John is honorable discharged. Story begins

Introduction

Event A

Reaction to Event A

Event B

And so on and so forth. You don't even need dates if it isn't important. What you are looking for is a simple order of events.

**Write a summary of your story**

Your summary should be 2-4 sentences long at most. It is a baited hook to reel potential readers in using a premise that they may want to read about. Some writers like to use dialogue from their fic, but if you do that make sure it has enough information in it to tell the reader what the premise of your story is. When you have thousands of story titles to wade though (and most of them badly written) a funny quote isn't always enough. Most readers won't click on a story that they don't know what the premise is.

**Develop an outline**

This is one of those things where there is multiple ways of doing it. Some writers just know where they want their story to go and just dive into the actual writing. That's okay. Some people are capable of keeping it straight in their head. I'm not one of them. I need to have something to reference to in order to keep my story going where I want it to.

I won't go into too much detail on this because I feel like it would take too much time and would veer too far away from the true purpose of this chapter which is "getting started" , not "how to do a proper story outline". "How to do a proper story outline "deserves its own chapter and I hope to do it justice.

For our purposes here I will just say that an outline is like a time line with a lot more description and dialogue. It puts that order of events into context. If you think of good dialogue that you don't want to forget, that's where you stick it. It can be as detailed or bare as you want. This is for you, not the reader.

Like your timeline, your Outline doesn't have to be set in stone to start your story. Far from it. As you write it will have parts deleted as unnecessary, have stuff added to it, and have other things edited. The point is to have something to reference as a writer to avoid errors and contradictions.

**Character development**

With established characters you want to keep them as close to cannon as possible. When a character is "out of character "or OOC you need to warn the readers in an author's note (A/N). If too many characters are OOC then you will turn the readers off. Remember, they don't know you. They want to read about their favorite characters in the style they are commonly known in, not the way you need them to be for the purposes of the story.

Try to avoid character bashing with popular good guy characters. Character bashing works a little bit better with characters that are full on bad or at least in-between with no set loyalties because it's usually not too far off from what's established. When you do it to one of the "good guys" you run the risk of alienating a large percentage of readers. A good example would be for the Harry potter universe. Weasely or Dumbledore bashing. The problem you run into is that while it may work for your story, the result is the characters you are bashing end up nothing like what their established personalities are. You can usually bash a bad guy without messing with that too much, but with good guys it is almost impossible.

Not all fanfictions are cannon compliant. Some are Alternate Universe (A/U) where things are a lot different than what is established. That too is okay. You just need to be aware that AU comes with its own difficulties and risks.

**Grammar, Grammar, Grammar**

Remember your high school English classes? Well I do, and I hated them. However it is time we put all that hatred and fear of atomic wedgies behind us and put that knowledge to good use. Nothing will cause a reader to hit the backwards tab back to story search faster than misspellings, switching tenses in the middle of a paragraph, and run-on sentences. Which brings me to…

**Get a Beta**

It doesn't necessarily have to be one from this site. It can be someone that you know, but it is always a good idea to have another set of eyes to double check for spelling and grammar. If you want a FFN beta click of the beta button at the topof the site and follow the directions

**Watch your paragraph and Chapter lengths **

The last thing anyone wants to see is a great wall of text when they open a story. Your paragraphs should be no longer than 4-5 sentences and dialogue should stand alone and be in quotes. Make sure it is clear who is saying what if it isn't written out behind the quotes.

Long paragraphs are hard to read. Chopping them up makes it easier on the eyes and just looks better.

My rule of thumb on chapter lengths is 1,500 words per chapter at least. Prologues are sometimes short by necessity. But if I see a 70 chapter story that is only 65,000 words long. I don't care how well it is written, I'm not opening it. Short chapters are a lazy writer's tool. It takes away from the enjoyment and flow of a story.

**Author's Notes**

Author's notes are a useful tool because they allow you to put certain events in the story into context and they give your readers an insight into your mind. Beware though. Don't use them to fight back at rude reviewers. Be the bigger person. On the internet everybody is a supermodel, genius, multimillionaire with all the time in the world to put out a chapter a day of Pulitzer prize worthy updates. We mere mortals are not so lucky and real life intervenes. Treat the morons with respect and thank your more reasonable reviews gratuitously.

Remember. A critical review is not necessarily a flame. It is an opportunity to hone your skills.

Do not use entire chapters for an A/N or a simple update on when the story will be updated. That's what you user profile is for. I cannot tell you how many times I have been excited to see a favorite story has a new chapter only to have my hopes dashed with it just being an apology for not updating and a promise to not abandon it (or the "Kiss of death" as I like to call it). Best to avoid such disappointments IMO.

**Start Writing!**

Have fun with it. Make sure that you are interested in what you are writing about. If it bores you to tears then nobody else will like it either. Don't allow reviewers to pressure you into updating before a chapter is completely ready. It's not ready until you think it's ready. If you don't know how to publish a story then look at the end of this in my important links

For my next chapter I want to focus on writing "Turning Points" in a story. Something where I have a little fun with it and use dialogue from books that I have read. I want to avoid turning this into a lecture**. Please review**. I want to know what you think. Is there any topic you would like me to cover?

Important Links

Additional advice on how to start a fanfiction

[ Write-a-Fanfiction ]

This is the first site I found when looking for advice on how to write a story. It was very helpful. I highly recommend giving it a look.

How to publish on FFN

[ topic/9522/15519613/1/Publish]

Until next time Happy writing!


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